Chandler: The first incumbent to fall

11/6/12 9:12 PM EST

Kentucky Democratic Rep. Ben Chandler became the first incumbent to lose reelection Tuesday night, further diminishing the ranks of the moderate Blue Dog Coalition in Congress.

Chandler lost in a rematch against Andy Barr, the Republican he defeated by 647 votes in 2010.

While Chandler was able to hold off Barr in his Lexington-based district during the GOP wave of 2010, the congressman appears to be a political casualty of what many in coal country call the Obama administration's “war on coal."

With 80 percent of precincts reporting, Obama was losing Kentucky by 20 percentage points. In Lexington's Fayette County, the district's population center, Obama ran several points behind his 2008 pace.